Anthony Daniels

C-3PO cannot change his expression, so Anthony Daniels makes a tilt of the head and a change of posture do the work. The precise, fussy voice supplies the rest, making worry audible when the face cannot show it. His mime training matters because the costume restricts the movements another actor might use to make a feeling clear. We rate the result highly, particularly when Daniels has someone to disagree with. He gives the robot enough vulnerability for the fussiness to be more than a recurring joke.

Star Wars (1977) gives that fussiness a partner in Kenny Baker’s R2-D2, and George Lucas allows their contrasting responses time to register. We laughed at the robots more than we expected because they were allowed to behave like an ordinary double act. Their company makes the unfamiliar surroundings easier to accept, without stopping for a lecture. The stiff exchanges elsewhere in the film are a useful reminder of how much these scenes depend on the performers having time to respond to one another.

Irvin Kershner’s The Empire Strikes Back (1980) keeps Daniels as C-3PO while making the machinery more frightening and the people worth worrying about. The humour survives the darker turn, which matters to our enthusiasm for the film. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), with Daniels providing C-3PO’s voice, is a less happy return. Lucas supplies fine action, but too much explanation and too many stiff conversations. A familiar character is not sufficient reason to sit through those.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) brought another return, and Daniels continued as C-3PO through The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Sustaining a character for more than four decades deserves respect, though it leaves much of our judgement resting on a single part. The useful test is still whether the posture and voice make us recognise a feeling beneath the costume, and in the original film they do. Start with Star Wars for the double act; there is no need to commit to four decades.